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> What if you never take that promotion? It’s not a promotion. It’s an entirely different job. You now manage people, influence and have control over their car
by ozzythecat 5y ago
> What if you never take that promotion?
It’s not a promotion. It’s an entirely different job. You now manage people, influence and have control over their careers, performance management, as well as obviously working budgets, roadmap, etc.
In my opinion, it’s a downgrade. I’ve found few managers in my career to be effective leaders. Most of my managers relied on the senior engineers to essentially drive the roadmap, do the estimates, lead design, break down the work, delegate, and lead the implementation.
This is generally the trend I see at Amazon at least. The managers who are good are extremely driven and dive super deep into the tech, while showing humility and empathy. They grow their people, get them the right opportunities, and are people you want to be around.
But there are waaaayyy too many managers who simply can’t cut it as engineers and switch from the engineering path to manager path. These folks actually add very little value.
Actually the best managers I’ve worked with are all former engineers who didn’t want to become managers but took on the role because they knew they could fulfill the need.
- nojito 5y ago>Most of my managers relied on the senior engineers to essentially drive the roadmap, do the estimates, lead design, break down the work, delegate, and lead the implementation. You mean they were good managers who know how to bring out the best out of their engineers? Some of the best managers out there today can't code out of a wet paper bag and yet generate billions of value for their companies.
- ozzythecat 5y ago>You mean they were good managers who know how to bring out the best out of their engineers? No, I don’t mean that all. I meant that they provided no value on their own. They passed every bit of the responsibility to someone else, while still collecting a hefty salary and stock compensation. Did they actually earn anything? I don’t think so. If the senior or staff engineers do everything, even down to recruiting, why do we need managers? The manager is a dead weight - letting go of them is actually the right thing for the stakeholders and shareholders of the company. The general trend I see is that when their lack of management results in things actually derailing, their way of accepting responsibility is simply throwing one or more of their reports under the bus. Sure, they’re shrewd and figured out a way to play the system. I’ll give ‘‘em credit for that.
- nojito 5y agoDelegation is a skill that’s worth billions of dollars. Which is why the best managers are phenomenal delegators.
- diatone 5y agoLooks like GP is drawing a distinction between deliberate application of good management skill, and reliance on the initiative of others. Unless you’re implying that good management is minimal (potentially zero) management?